BalticClimate Project: Outcomes and Experiences Gained Head of the International Research Projects George Varlamov

Pskov State University is established by merging 5 educational institutions in the Pskov Region Total number of students and staff is more than people There are more than 700 teachers at PskovSU There are 15 faculties and 57 chairs at PskovSU, The number of basic educational programmes of higher professional education is more than 100 (for bachelors, specialists, masters) Vocational programmes on a wide range of directions are implemented at the university Post-graduate studies in 19 directions

 C ouncil of the Baltic Sea States  EuroFaculty-Pskov  Nordic Council of Ministers  NotaBENe  Innovations in Northern Europe  INTERREG programmes  Product Development Methodologies and Impementation in Estonian and Russian Border Regions (PRODEMET)  Potentials for a Spatial Development under the Aspects of Decline (HINTERLAND)  Innovation Circle  Baltic Sea Region programme  Baltic Challenges and Chances for local and regional development generated by Climate Change (BalticClimate)  ERASMUS MUNDUS  European-Russian Academic Network (ERANET-MUNDUS)  TEMPUS  Environmental Governance for Environmental Curricula

 Baltic Challenges and Chances for local and regional development generated by Climate Change (BalticClimate) is being implemented within the Baltic Sea Region Programme  The project was awarded status as a flagship project that anticipates regional and local impacts of climate change through research within the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region

 Three main stages of the project: the Inventory phase, the Vulnerability Assessment phase and the Capitalisation phase  The challenges and chances generated by climate change were identified in 7 Target Areas  Deeper analyses focused on selected Implementation Cases in 4 sectors (transport, energy, housing and agriculture)

The project aims to identify how the climate change phenomenon will present opportunities and chances for the development of municipalities and regions when they are accounting for climate change information in their long term strategies and planning

BalticClimate main objectives:  To enable Baltic Sea region municipalities, regions and local actors to deal with the climate change issue in a cooperative, integrated and sustainable way  To make the climate change phenomenon understood as challenge, as well as a chance for local and regional overall and sustainable development  To make Baltic Sea region municipalities and regions more competitive for future challenges to maintain and enhance the common existing identity of the region

 BalticClimate team is comprised of 23 partners from Estonia, Finland, Germany (Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) – Lead Partner), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden plus further 16 Associated Organisations, including from Russia (the Bezhanitskiy Rayon, the Pskov Region)Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL  The project’s main outputs are packaged into an information and communication technologies (ICT) Toolkit - (Toolkit DEMO) DEMO

BalticClimate Toolkit aims to:  raise the understanding of the phenomenon  identify how climate change will affect specific areas  inform about the essential elements with regard to climate change as well as sustainable development  support knowledge transfer from the global to the local level and trans-nationally  enhance capacities to deal with the issue of climate change in a cooperative, integrated and sustainable manner  detect and develop opportunities and chances, and, hence, to  increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of small and medium sized cities and rural areas and their surrounding regions

BalticClimate Toolkit addresses three relevant groups of actors: policy makers, spatial planners and business people  For policy makers the information focuses on the most crucial aspects – facing the problem and getting activatedpolicy makers  Spatial planners are addressed with more detailed and scientific information Spatial planners  Business people will be led into the issue through their main concerns: to know about the impacts on a business in a given region and to know what kinds of opportunities exist under new situations and circumstances Business people

BalticClimate Toolkit’s structure:  The Toolkit  About climate change  Climate change scenarios  Climate change impacts  Examples  The Project  Glossary NB! The Toolkit is available in 11 languages of the Baltic Sea Region

“Pathfinding through Climate Change” (Riga, Latvia, November 8th-9th 2011)  Objective: summing up the realizations of the project  The Conference gathered more than 150 participants  Conference highlights included: Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region, Experiences in the Transport, Energy, Agriculture and Planning/Housing Sectors, Climate Change and Business, Visualisations in the Multimedia Dome plus BalticClimate Idea Bazaar: Publication of the multi-language BalticClimate Toolkit and Posters, Panel Discussion with Multipliers for Policy Making, Spatial Planning and Business

Further main outputs mainly summarizing results and experiences can be found on the overall project website  Report on project participants' perceptions of climate change and experiences made by applying and testing the questionnaire  Easy-to-use strategic climate change tool for decisions in the business sector  Easy-to-apply criteria to analyse sustainable development in spatial planning and development  Specific and easy-to-use and apply step-wise approach for climate change vulnerability assessments in BSR cities and rural areas

 Supporting and training material for climate change impact assessment and step-wise approach on vulnerability assessment as tools specific for BSR cities and rural areas  Integrated solutions for BSR municipalities and regions to integrate climate change information in their spatial planning processes and cross-sectoral development as well as in their joint urban-rural cooperation  Baltic Sea Region and local level climate change impact assessments and vulnerability assessments in different countries' Target Areas

 Common report "Capitalise Climate Change - C³": Application of the elaborated Climate Change SWOT and activities to support decisions in the business sector considering climate change as chance for future development in the Target Areas  Report on climate change impact assessments and vulnerability assessments and experiences made by applying/ testing the outputs/ tools in project's Target Areas and implementation cases  Report and conclusions on experiences and results on alternatives for land use, spatial structures and in implementation cases considering climate change in the Target Areas

Major activities / outcomes for PskovSU:  Two Questionnaires on the perceptions of climate change in the Bezhanitskiy Rayon  Target Area Assessments: a preparatory inventory phase / a vulnerability assessment phase / a capitalization phase  Implementation Cases (housing / agriculture) developed  Experience exchange (participation in project seminars, conferences, public events etc.)  Dissemination of materials on climate change phenomenon, including in the RU language (flyers, booklets, posters, publications in local and regional mass- media, movie etc.) and many other… (Pskov Movie)Pskov Movie

Saara Hasu Emilia Joenniemi Laura Mustonen BUILDING WOODEN HOUSES IN BEZHANITSKIY RAYON Bezhanitskiy Rayon: ha Located in Western Russia 30% forest Population Superiority of wood as building material: Renewability Carbon storage Availability, price and energy efficiency SWOT for Building wooden houses in Bezhanitskiy Rayon Based on the analysis climate change will evidently increase the potentiality of using wood as construction material in the target area. Wood as carbon storage is crucial for climate change mitigation but building wooden houses in Bezhanitskiy Rayon also offers social and economic advantages such as local development, improvement of infrastructure and cost effectiveness of housing. Creation of jobs can additionally increase the attractiveness of the entire area and turn around the declining population trend. To ensure profitability, feasibility and sustainability of building wooden houses it is essential to attract investments and know-how in all life cycle stages of building wooden houses. Building wooden houses offers future possibilities for Bezhanitskiy Rayon. Investments and expertise are needed in order to utilize wood as construction material to work in favor of climate change mitigation and local development.

MODERNIZATION AND TRANSFER ON LOCAL FUELS USE OF BOILER HOUSES IN BEZHANITSKIY RAYON Aim: The research is aimed at modernization of boiler houses in Bezhanitskiy Rayon (BR). This will help to optimize heat and power supply in housing and industries and to decrease dependence of the Rayon on imported oil, as well as to increase energy efficiency and to decrease GHG emissions. Description It is necessary to construct new boiler houses working on peat and wood in order to optimize power and heat supply in BR The suggested activities are relevant for BR as key assets wear rate of existing gas boiler houses is very high (68%), processing equipment efficiency is very low (KPI 50%), the rate of pumping equipment with frequency regulation systems is very low (20%) Only 2% of heat energy are produced by boiler houses working on local fuels BR has great peat deposits and forest estates with unmerchantable wood Modernized boiler house in Luschik village of Bezhanitskiy Rayon (inside view) Boiler houses modernization will help to increase their energy efficiency and to decrease green house gases emissions by: 1.Boiler houses equipment Key Performance Indicator (KPI) increase by 28% 2.Decrease in transport costs (at the present moment transport costs can make up to 50% of total costs of coal and 20% of oil fuel costs) 3.Coal and oil fuel will be substituted with local fuels 4.Costs of energy for industrial needs will decrease by 30% Bezhanitskiy Rayon Pskov Region Russia Responsibility: Bezhanitskiy Rayon Administration Further information: in Russian

IMPROVEMENT OF FOREST ESTATE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN BEZHANITSKIY RAYON Aim: The research is aimed at an increase of the effectiveness of timber resources processing by introducing new forms of forest estate management system in Bezhanitskiy Rayon (BR). This will help to mitigate climate change impacts such as bogging, bushing, forest fires, etc. Description: Main features of BR forest estates: lack of raw materials base, underdevelopment of milling sector and hardwood processing, domination of hard wood The main reason for forest estates underdevelopment is forest legislation with a big amount of shortages and confusions The main disadvantages of existing forest estate management system are: low quality of forest ranges, hard-to-reach forest lands, bushing of agricultural lands, lack of control of trees and shrubs cutting, unwarranted clearance, territories cluttering up, etc. It’s necessary to introduce new forest management system to improve the situation Forest in Bezhanitskiy Rayon The following ways to improve the situation with forest estates in BR were defined : 1.To enlarge powers of local authorities 2.To simplify the procedure of forest areas renting for small business and local population 3.To reintroduce auction system for parceling forest areas 4.To stimulate non-woody forest resources use: berries, mushrooms medicinal herbs 5.To stimulate forest estate use for ecological tourism 6.To introduce new form of forest estate management Bezhanitskiy Rayon Pskov Region Russia Responsibility: Bezhanitskiy Rayon Administration Further information: in Russian

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